By day, Federico Rios is a mild-mannered industrial designer working on new red wagon designs at Radio Flyer. By night, he is part of an elite crew that tunes and races cars. What separates Rios from the Fast and Furious set is that his creations are palm-sized designs made from laser-cut plastic with zero-horsepower Arduinos under their construction-paper hoods.

Rios’s project, Drag Strip, takes the fun of classic arcade racing games like Pole Position and applies a DIY ethic to bring them to the physical world. Using a custom-built cabinet with buttons that could have been salvaged from old arcade games, players control paper racers that head, slowly, to the finish line.

The racers are made of small motors, laser-cut frames, scavenged wheels, and lightweight construction-paper panels.

Races start with a traditional colored-light countdown. Once the green light turns on, the Arduino starts interpreting each press of the button as virtual fuel. The faster players mash buttons, the faster each car’s small DC motor will turn. Rios says “Everyone enjoys the race, although some are a little frustrated that I topped the speed of the cars at 1/2 mph to make the drag race last.” If you’re the kind of person who likes to live life a quarter-inch at a time, this might be the circuit for you.

Even though the final product was high-tech, the design process was old-school.

The project started as a school project, but Rios sees a bigger benefit. “It is an interactive toy meant for the young at heart, with the purpose of getting its users away from screens and together with friends to enjoy some healthy competition. I am really fond of the idea of using videogame-style interactions and their inherent competition to get people together.”